IC2177 (Seagull Nebula)

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rcj
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IC2177 (Seagull Nebula)

Post by rcj »

Hi everyone,

Here's a HA rendition of the popular Seagull Nebula between Monoceros and Canis Major. Waiting for more clear sky opportunities to run the other NB filters through this.

Image
Last edited by rcj on Sat Feb 19, 2011 3:04 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by weixing »

Hi,
Excellent... Can't wait to see the colour version.

Have a nice day.
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Post by timatworksg »

Looking Good Remus! Got a fair bit of the Nebula! Fingers crossed for clear nights to see the color combi!! NICE!!
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Post by Clifford60 »

Great job, getting something that you can't even see. yes, also waiting for the colour version.
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Post by Airconvent »

It does look like a seagull. Nice image!
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Post by rcj »

yeah, really looks like a Seagull to me too! It is one of those objects of beauty but placed in such a way that there is only a thin window of opportunity to capture it before it disappears out of view (about an hour)....
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Post by timatworksg »

Like a typical Seagull...Fly away!! Catch it quick!!
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Post by rcj »

Here is a colorized version utilizing hydrogen-alpha and oxygen-iii data:

Image
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Post by mch3898 »

Cool. This and Cataclysm's NGC3372.

Wonder what will the color be with SII added in?
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Post by rcj »

been reworking on the HA and OIII data for Seagull again. Improving on the colorized version earlier posted today.

Image

So far, the capture breakdown is:

HA: 140min
OIII: 100min

Technically, we should strive to have more OIII data as the HA is overwhelming, but because this nebula is purely emissive, it passes of OK. At the moment I have three subs of SII but only one sub is acceptable, and as such, can't include it to provide a full colorized version - hence a bicolor composite as presented above. Depending on how one assigns the colour palette, the nebula will be presented in a different way (in terms of colour). Typically, we have the Hubble palette where the assignment is as follows:

Red is assigned SII
Green is assigned HA
Blue is assigned OIII

Now if you look into this palette further, nominally for an object like the Seagull where it is purely emissive, the HA component will dominate much more than the other two components, giving it a very green appearance. Now this may not look good or "look right" to most people and as such, further processing is done upon this to make it look more balanced (reducing the green, irony to obtaining seemingly precious HA data in our skies!). Also, it is advised to actually take more OIII and SII as they are relatively "weak" in most nebula objects. Will see how this goes in the following nights to come, as more SII data is captured for this object.
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